Your personal comic book origins

[CBikle]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

I first started reading comics in the early 70's. Mostly DC (especially the 100 page spectaculars that had tons of old golden and silver age reprints).

 

I think my 1st comic was part of a multi-part JLA story (I remember it had Adam strange in it)

 

The "look" of many Marvel books in the early 70's kind of discouraged my parents from getting those. Everything was kung-fu and/or monsters.

 

Later on, I started picking up Marvel titles. I remember liking how characters seemed to leap-frog and guest-star from one Marvel book to another.

 

One of the more surreal memories I had, was picking up an issue of Tomb Of Dracula, because Spider-Man was making a cameo in that book.

[MitchellS]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

My brother is 15 years older then me so by the time I started reading comics in 1969 he was moving out of the house and I inherited his full Marvel collection [i still have all the issues to this day!]. I was a HUGE Avengers fan and that, more then any other comic book, keep me buying and coming back for more every month. I'd say the Avengers, Thor, Ironman, Tomb of Dracula, and Dr. Strange were my favorites until the mid-1970s. Then the "new" X-men, Defenders, and the short-runned Nova got added to the list. I loved them all but owe it all to the Avengers.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

I first started reading comics in the early 70's. Mostly DC (especially the 100 page spectaculars that had tons of old golden and silver age reprints).

 

Ah yes - I remember those!

 

I think my 1st comic was part of a multi-part JLA story (I remember it had Adam strange in it)

 

From your timing, maybe about JLA #100 - 102, which had just about everyone appearing, and was about a year or so before the 100 pagers exploded. I'm pretty sure I had #100 at about Grade 1 or so. I remember getting #105-106 in a grab bag (Elongated Man joins, then Red Tornado) and that pretty much hooked me as a kid.

 

The "look" of many Marvel books in the early 70's kind of discouraged my parents from getting those. Everything was kung-fu and/or monsters.

 

I bought a few Marvels as a kid, but I was very frustrated if I couldn't get the end of the story, so I was mainly a DC buyer. DC tended to one, maybe two issue stories (plus those wonderful 100 page books) where Marvel had extended story arcs.

 

I was always more into the team books than the solo books, so JLA, Avengers, Defenders and X-Men (at that time reprinting their early issues).

[Blue]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

My brother is 15 years older then me so by the time I started reading comics in 1969 he was moving out of the house and I inherited his full Marvel collection [i still have all the issues to this day!]. I was a HUGE Avengers fan and that' date=' more then any other comic book, keep me buying and coming back for more every month. I'd say the Avengers, Thor, Ironman, Tomb of Dracula, and Dr. Strange were my favorites until the mid-1970s. Then the "new" X-men, Defenders, and the short-runned Nova got added to the list. I loved them all but owe it all to the Avengers. [/quote']

I wish I had my brother's comics. Think when he moved out he sold them for some magic beans or something.

[OddHat]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

I first started reading comics in the early 70's. Mostly DC (especially the 100 page spectaculars that had tons of old golden and silver age reprints).

 

I loved those books.

[StGrimblefig]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

Oddly enough, the earliest comics I remember are Tintin books -- none of which I own. My parents were big on going to the library every Sunday afternoon, and I sat in the children's section looking at books even before I could read them.

 

Later, of course, I enjoyed the far-future Legion of Super Heroes (you have to admire them for actually coming up with something for Matter Eater Lad to do) and a lot of the mid-70s Marvel. Sadly, I enjoyed them so much that they are not in decent shape now.

[John Desmarais]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

What were the books that got you hooked on comics originally? Not necessarily your very first comic book, but the ongoing series (or perhaps story arc) that really made you stick with comics and start buying other titles.

 

I think the foremost ones for me would be the mid to late Avengers and Spider-Man comics.

 

Amazing Spider-Man 150 plus - The first Spider-clone, great art by Sal Buscema, John Romita, and Ross Andru.

 

Avengers 150 plus - Jack Kirby covers, Gerry Conway writing

 

The first comic I ever bought was some issue of Superman. I don't remember which one, but it featured both Luthor and Brainiac as the villains and was drawn by Curt Swan (and probably writtern by Cary Bates). I bought various issues of Supermand, Action, Batman, & Detective - and the occasional Spiderman - but didn't become a die-hard comic fan until 1975.

 

The comic that made me a comic book fan though was Justice League of America #122. Here were all of those characters I had previously only seen on the Super Friends; but it wasn't silly and it didn't have Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. I was hooked. The very next issue was my first exposure to concept of DC's Multiverse. I was nine years old and it made perfect sense to me. So much of DC's theory that the Multiverse was too complicated and off-putting for young readers.

 

That same month, I also bought my first issue of Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes (#211), but missed the following issue. A couple of months later though this title also became a "must have".

 

I also bought my first issue of Fantastic Four around this time (#162), but it was several issues later when the series "clicked" for me. (Issue 162 featured Marvel's "Counter Earth" which, due to having missed the previous issues, made very little sense to me.)

 

A couple of years later, I picked up Avenger #155, and, after scrounging up the couple of issues before it, became a fan.

 

In addition to whatever other comics I've opted to read, I have continued to read these four titles (JLA, LSH, FF, Avengers) ever since - maintaining an unbroken track, through the good and the bad; even filling in most of the issues that predated me. These are the comics that most heavily influence the Champions games that I run.

[Ghost Archer]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

Let's see if I can remember back that far. I remember Kirby's Fantastic Four, the very first one. My grandfather used to walk down to the local newspaper stand every evening. Once in a while I'd go along. He and his friends would sit around out front and play checkers (I kid you not) and I would sit on the floor in the shop between the two comic racks. You know, those old wire carousel type. the whole superhero thing dawned on me with that first book. Sadly, I didn't start collecting comics until about a dozen years later. Still have a half dozen boxes of mostly 70's stuff and mostly Marvel.

[Kirby]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

The Fall of the Mutants storyline in Marvel.

Oh man. That's the story line that got me to stop reading Marvel.

[Cancer]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

I dimly what I think was my first comic purchase, age 6, back in early 1963, in the Stars & Stripes newsstand in West Berlin. A DC comic, and the story, at least, was titled "Blackhawk" ... though I don't think that was the name of the 'zine. Later I got into much of the DC offerings of the era. That lasted about 2.5 years, after which we back Stateside, English-language TV became available again, and I forgot comics until we went to Europe again in 1968.

[Bloodstone]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

The storyline that really got me hooked on comics was the Dark Phoenix Saga and everything that lead up to it.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

The storyline that really got me hooked on comics was the Dark Phoenix Saga and everything that lead up to it.

 

Yeah. I didn't get into the X-men (or Marvel really aside from Avengers and some Iron Man) until after this, and I kept wondering what the big deal with Jean was, until years later when I finally read it.

[Tiree]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

I remember reading my first comic book when I was about 8, and I hated it. It was a Superman comic, and I think it was set in the vietnam era. It was pretty much a rag, falling apart when I got it.

 

Many years later, I picked up an X-Men Comic right after the Inferno series, and it just got me hooked, I needed to know what happened, but I still didn't buy any comics as a true fan.

 

I ended up going to a comic book convention look for video tapes of Robotech. I had enough money to buy them (If I didn't spend the money for the covercharge getting into the convention). So it wasn't a complete bust, I picked up the Dark Pheonix Saga in a Graphic Novel. Again I was hooked (I think it was the White Queen....) So I collected backwards and forwards until the Legacy Virus world shift that Marvel did. Then I stopped. But during that time I picked up quite a bit of different comics, and really enjoyed Image - amazingly enough for the fresh start of the stories.

[Vondy]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

I've never been consistent. I collect titles I like and that's it. If there's nothing I like I don't buy. And I've never been into a lot of the big ongoing titles (a few for a year or two, but that's it). The one's that opened up the medium for me, however, were:

 

The Hooks:

 

John Sable Freelance

The 'Nam

The Longbow Hunters

 

Historically:

 

The Second Incarnation of the JLA

The 1st 2 years of the Dark Knight Returns

Hulk during the Mr. Fixit phase

Red Sonja

 

Recently:

 

Birds of Prey

I'm looking at picking up Planetary

[zornwil]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

As a kid the Metal Men and Inferior Five grabbed me, and I enjoyed some Green Arrow/Green Lantern titles, some Flash, a little Spiderman, a period of Superman, and some Batman. Those got me into it for a while, then I dropped reading comics by high school.

 

Post-college, Flaming Carrot and a smattering of indie titles held my interest for a while, then it waned again, then Sandman (the Gaiman one) reinvigorated my interest permanently.

[lynnlefey]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

I remember reading Star Wars and Spider-Man in the early 80's, but the single issue that sort of cemented my comic reading was X-Men 174. No particular reason. It just so happened to be the one my brother bought for me.

 

After a few years, I lost interest in comics, having rather outgrown them, until the B&W surge of the late 80's, when TMNT and Tick got me back into comics. I also had someone force me to read Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, after which I realized what the medium could be. I've read various titles ever since, bt I certainly don't consider myself a collector.

[Great Beyond]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

Ah, thats easy: Star Wars. More specificly, the marvel run of the series. You see back in the 70's, when Star Wars Ruled The World, they had - well, we'd call them trade paperbacks these days - everywhere. 7-11, drug stores, malls - I couldnt avoid them. Not that I wanted to, mind you. I got my mits on all things Wars back then, so the comic was a natural extension of that.

 

Fast foward 3 years to 1980 - I've been following the book for a while now, and started wondering "This guy wearing red and blue throwing hostess fruit pies at the guy in green and yellow - whats that all about?"

 

And so I started picking up other books - spiderman at first - but it quicly went downhill from there.

[Kenn]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

When I was 3 or 4 and still learning to read I discovered a "picture book" of my Dad's (already a mind blowing concept) called "The Great Comic Book Heroes" by a man named Jules Pfeiffer. The "picture book" portion were reprints of a bunch of old golden-age stories. The bright colours, the fantastic action, the fact that it was words and stories all contributed to my love of the stories (it also meant a guy born in 1968 had Jay Garrick, Jim Hammond, and Alan Scott as his first Flash, Human Torch, and Green Lantern.)

 

Then I discovered that some of these characters were on TV: reruns of George Reeves, Adam&Burt, the old Marvel heroes cartoon, etc.

 

When I was 5, and in the hospital, my dad got me my first comic book. It was an issue of "Batman." Had Man-Bat on the cover and in the lead-story (it was one of those 100 page books with 25 pages new and 70+ pages of reprints. A few years ago I found a copy of the issue and finally replaced the one I read to death as a child.

 

I got other issues of "Batman" over the next year or two when I was sick or whatever. (I should note, my dad had been a comic book fan growing up, and even read some during his army stint - he tossed out his copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 when he got shipped out.)

 

I watched Super Friends avidly. I watched PBS, and saw Spider-Man on the Electric Company.

 

Christmas 1974, I received as a present, Justice League of America #110. (The one with a dead Santa on the cover - and my second GL was John Stewart.) There was a JSA reprint ("Plight of the nation") and a JLA reprint ("Z is for Zatanna and Zero Hour.") There was a group shot of the late-60s JSA including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and an adult Robin. I didn't know the multiverse yet. But I could handle stories being told at different characters at different times. And since my dad read Batman when he was a kid, of course Robin could be an adult. (Later I'd learn about the multiverse, and later DC would tell me I was right the first time.)

 

An uncle had an good sized collection of comics (Marvel, DC, Archie) which I read when we went to grandma's house. he gave me a bunch of "Spidey Super Stories" comics too.

 

Justice League of America #143 was the first comic I bought with my own money, I think. And an add for #144 told me I had to have that one (the origin of the JLA minus one.) Dad got me Teen Titans #47. I picked up JLA #150 (the Key! I remembered him from #110.)

 

Went without anything new for a few years; I still was going through Uncle Russ' Avengers and Fantastic Fours when I could. Finally, I picked up the "Crisis on New Genesis" three parter.

 

Then my brother (4 years my junior) asked for, and received a subscription to the "Star Wars" comic. It had never occurred to me to ask for subscription. Until then. My JLA subscription kicked in around JLA #193.

 

And I started picking up the DC reprint digests. And then "The New Teen Titans" and "All-Star Squadron" started and I picked up a few of those, but then I discovered the comic book store two blocks away from my house and I was lost.

 

And I got my dad collecting again too. Not sure which bugged my Mom more - Dad getting me started, or me getting dad restarted.

[Zed-F]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

Sadly, the only comic books I ever went out of my way to read were the Asterix and Obelix books, and the Tintin books. And that's because I could find them in the library.

[Wolven]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

For me it was Dazzler. A friend of mine in highschool had a full set of the Dazzler comic and he sold it to me. I really enjoyed the character, and she is still my all time fave. That led me into the X-Books.

 

Now that I think about it, I was reading Elf Quest before I started Dazzler. I was big time hooked on Wendy and Richards Work. But Dazzler is what led me into reading standard Superhero comics.

[mayapuppies]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

The Micronaughts grab packs were what got me started, followed very closely by the X-Men around the time that Wolverine, Collosus et al were being introduced.

 

Then I stopped when I realized that gaming takes money too...

[input.jack]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

The Batman comics written by Giordano and O'Neal, and drawn by Neal Adams.

 

Kind of explains a lot of how I view the character, neh?

 

 

And in high school, a friend turned me on to the X-Men's "Phoenix saga". Back when it was (a) new, ( original, and © hadnt been retconned into meaninglessness.

[assault]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

I rediscovered my old "comics box" a couple of years ago. Lots of "kid stuff". The earliest superhero stuff was Australian reprints of 50s and 60s DC material, including some fabulous classics. All black and white.

 

I was rather underwhelmed a couple of years later when I first encountered Marvel's characters. It was like: "who?"

 

I got back into comics after I started playing Champions. Most of the people in my group were Marvel Zombies, so I eventually went back to my roots and started collecting DC. Fortunately, DC was on a roll in the mid 80s, with the New Teen Titans and the various post-Crisis retcons, which, while annoying at one level, were actually rather good at others. They didn't really start systematically hosing their characters until the 90s, by which time I had stopped again, after moving to Papua New Guinea for a while.

 

Oh yes: the most common title in my "when I was learning to read" comics box? Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, of course.

 

Get over yourself. If you can't appreciate a Giant Turtle Jimmy Olsen, you take life too seriously.

[Drhoz]

Re: Your personal comic book origins

 

If there's one thing connecting men across the globe' date=' it must be the shared anguish of having mum throw away their favourite comics.[/quote']

 

my mum throw away my boxful of fossil graptolites